……. it is typical of religion-based moralities to hold that much of what affords pleasure and brings achievement in real human lives is actually a barrier to moral success, and might indeed damn us.
The Choice of Hercules by A. C. Grayling, Wiedenfeld & Nicholson 2007
Epicurus, on the other hand, believed that we should enjoy this life to the full, in moderation of course.
So much of religion is restrictive, especially when it comes to sex. I’m sure the avid interest in pornography is partly caused by the guilt feelings about sex that permeate so much of Christian teaching. If you can’t get the real thing then watch the bogus thing on the screen?
A bit pathetic . And boring (how do I know?!)
Surely, such natural aspects of life ought to be satisfied without having to enter the vicarious world of pornography. But developments over the last two centuries have fragmented and pulverized most human communities and the wreckage is scattered all around us, the escape to pornography just one symptom of the destruction of human ties.
Isn’t it tempting when you see people picking up the boob-magazines at 7-11 to tug at their elbows and say: “Ditch that, find the real thing.” Of course, the fundies fear real things such as sex. And the effluvia from porno-computer land seems to be ubiquitous as this morning’s news tells us.
What a mess economic corporations and out-of-control fundamentalists have made of things. It requires all Epicurean balance and sanity to survive among their detritus.
Friendship, beauty, conversation, balance — our refuges.
Amen to that, if I may coin a phrase!
The problem is that they have no idea how much harm they do.